Hopkins board hears transportation audit; favors preserving bell times while expanding no-bus zones and pay-to-ride option

Hopkins Public School Board members received a detailed transportation audit at an April 8 workshop and indicated support for a plan that preserves existing bell times while shifting some nonpublic school rides and expanding no-bus zones to reduce fleet needs and costs.

The audit, carried out with consultant CECL and presented by Assistant Director of Transportation Maisha Williams and others, compared four bell-time scenarios and modeled how each would affect the district’s general education fleet and costs. “The total number of gen ed buses used on your current bell time system is 55 buses,” Williams told the board. Superintendent Mary Pirie Reid outlined the budget context: “Before COVID, we were paying about $6,000,000 for transportation and… we're sitting at around $11,000,000,” she said, noting the district must find efficiencies as it plans for a $7 million budget reduction for FY26.

Why it matters

The district faces a multi-million-dollar shortfall that has pushed transportation into the center of budget planning. Buses are contracted services for Hopkins; staff and consultants modeled routing, bell-time changes and “no-bus” eligibility to estimate how many contracted vehicles could be removed and how quickly savings might appear.

Most important findings and numbers

- Current contracted general-education fleet modeled by consultants: 55 buses; Williams said current open-enrolled students on those routes number 526. Secondary open-enrolled students were cited as 304, which consultants estimated equates to roughly four to five buses. - Rough per-bus cost used in the analysis: about $100,000 per bus per year (consultants said that figure reflects contracted services, with fuel excluded). - Scenario outcomes presented (consultants’ modeled results): keeping current tiering but moving three elementary schools to a…